Relaxed Muscle

Continuing in the dark, arty electronic vein that informed their other bands, Relaxed Muscle is the side project/supergroup of <a href="spotify:artist:36E7oYfz3LLRto6l2WmDcD">Pulp</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:13W7XLRXdWeLmIu9vacE1w">Jarvis Cocker</a>, multi-instrumentalist <a href="spotify:artist:1ZsnHGOLYFg8CAHQQBc1ut">Richard Hawley</a> (also of <a href="spotify:artist:36E7oYfz3LLRto6l2WmDcD">Pulp</a>, as well as <a href="spotify:artist:3pcItz4w7h7fpTDgnTYIUn">Add N to (X)</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1o7zIbVAgDDHKijLVuLASg">the Longpigs</a>), and Jason Buckle, also of the Fat Truckers. Billing themselves "the sound of young Doncaster," <a href="spotify:artist:13W7XLRXdWeLmIu9vacE1w">Cocker</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1ZsnHGOLYFg8CAHQQBc1ut">Hawley</a> took the pseudonyms Darren Spooner and Wayne Marsden (the name of a boy that bullied <a href="spotify:artist:13W7XLRXdWeLmIu9vacE1w">Cocker</a> in school) for their first 7", The Heavy, which was limited to 500 copies and featured some of the songs that they performed as Jarvis & Friends at a September 2002 concert at London's Royal Festival Hall. Songs such as "The Heavy," "Rod of Iron," and "Branded" carried on some of the themes found in <a href="spotify:artist:36E7oYfz3LLRto6l2WmDcD">Pulp</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3pcItz4w7h7fpTDgnTYIUn">Add N to (X)</a>'s later albums, but also recalled the work of <a href="spotify:artist:6uVeWolwyRDrT84lLsaZyW">Suicide</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6y1jbhyM2QbpU3Bm8Z8fbe">the Normal</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2kS4yz85MaZlxp2VaS3BEe">Cabaret Voltaire</a>. Rough Trade reissued The Heavy as a more widely available CD single in spring 2003. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi